


over the howling cliffs.

by hiveblood



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, and that's okay, bretta and ghost become real friends, bretta's thing w/ zote was comphet
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25776361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiveblood/pseuds/hiveblood
Summary: "that young lass! why, she's up and departed over the cliffs, with only the briefest word of farewell."cloth left. quirrel left. tiso left. myla left. ghost couldn't bear to see another friend go without at least saying goodbye.
Relationships: Bretta & The Knight (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57





	over the howling cliffs.

**Author's Note:**

> this is somewhat of an au where ghost minds their business and doesn't go into bretta's house- which. actually now that im thinking of it, wouldn't make sense given the gpz battles take place some time between chapter 1 and 2 but. i've gotten this far so we're hand waving that away. point being they have no idea bretta had a crush on them and doesn't read anything until the events of this fic.

nothing in the world looked like them. 

well, that’s not entirely true. their many siblings and half sibling looked like them, but...no one else. no other bug, as far back as ghost could remember, looked just like them. spiders looked like other spiders. bees looked like bees. pill bugs, beetles, flies- they all had some resemblance to each other, some baseline-

ghost looked like only the wyrm’s other children- an overwhelming majority of whom were long dead. 

so maybe that’s why they were drawn to the dolls that had been discarded behind bretta’s home, along with a few other ripped up items that ghost didn’t bother with. there were two of them, one big, almost life sized, and the other much smaller; they were very well made, and they were soft, especially the big one. the mask on it had been made out of a velvety fabric that ghost delighted in running their hands over.

they were both dolls depicting them, they knew, but they couldn’t quite figure out why. who cared about them enough to make dolls of them? and then....who would have thrown them away? why would someone put so much love into making something, only to discard it?

ghost ran their fingers over the bigger doll’s mask again, and seemed to make up their mind. 

considering it for a few seconds longer, they looked both dolls in the eyes, then shoved them into the void under their cloak for safekeeping and continued on their way. 

* * *

“making dolls and weaving are entirely different things, you know,” hornet said with a huff. ghost followed her as she made her way through what ghost could only assume was the part of the capital that housed a majority of its artisans. storefronts were in various stages of disrepair, usually based on what was sold inside- bakeries, delis, and the like had been ransacked, while stores that sold more frivolous goods were largely intact.

ghost was silent, of course, as hornet threw her needle and began to scale one of the more boarded up shops; whoever had lived and worked here must have been planning on coming back someday. taking out their mantis claw, they followed her, crawling through a window, into what seemed, for all intents and purposes, a normal bedroom. 

_‘your house?’_ they asked, head tilted in curiosity. 

hornet snorted. “hardly. this is just...a safe house. somewhere to store supplies, should i need them.”

she stood in silence for a few moments longer, before letting out another huff and holding out her hands. “well? let me see them, if you want me to make alterations.” 

ghost perked up immediately, and dragged out the dolls they’d been holding onto. hornet stared at them for a moment, before commenting, “these...are of you.” 

they nodded. they were aware.

“where did you get dolls...of yourself?” she asked, her confusion clear in her voice. 

ghost hesitated, wondering what to tell her. _‘friend made them,’_ they replied at last. 

this bit of information seemed to confuse hornet the most. she looked up from the dolls, almost startled. “you have _friends_?” 

ghost nodded eagerly. of course they had friends! didn’t hornet? 

“in any case - what did you want changed about them?” hornet said, shaking her head and moving on from the topic quickly. 

they took a step forward, and tapped the horns of the dolls twice; their sister’s eyes widened in understanding immediately. 

“...i see. any...style of horn in particular?” she asked, her voice so tight it bordered on brittle. 

ghost nodded for a moment...then shook their head. yes and no, really. it was hard to explain, so they pulled out the bundle of parchment that housed both their maps and doodles. quickly, they lined up their maps of ancient basin, greenpath, and the crossroads, lining up doodles of the vessels that had been in each area. their lost kin, greenie- as they had taken to calling the fallen sibling they had found in greenpath, and of course, the hollow knight. 

they pointed to each one, and then looked to hornet, and shook their head slowly, meaningfully. 

“no?” she asked. ghost shook their head again, and hornet seemed to get it. “i see. you’re fine with any horn design, but you don’t want anything resembling- resembling the others. is that right?”

ghost nodded, bouncing in place. they had decided, back when they thought of the idea to ask hornet to turn the dolls of them into dolls of their siblings, that they didn’t want the dolls to look like any specific one. they didn’t want effigies of their fallen siblings, they just wanted… something that looked like them, but wasn’t them. a pretend sibling, sort of. wasn’t that the purpose of dolls? to make believe?

“you might as well get comfortable. this shouldn’t take too long, but i’m...admittedly out of practice with something like this,” hornet said, setting the dolls on the bed. 

they did just that, hopping up on the dusty bed and kicking their legs as they waited for hornet to gather everything she needed. it would be nice, they thought, to see their sister use a needle for something other that battle.

**Author's Note:**

> next chapter the Plot kicks in but i had a brainworm for ghost wanting something that looked like them, and this fits into neatly to this fic so. here we are! let me know what you think and you can catch me on twitter @ hiveblood


End file.
